Halimah Mohamed Ali.; Sch. J. Arts. Humanit. Soc. Sci., December 2015; 3(9A):1450-1456
Scholars Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Sch. J. Arts Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2015; 3(9A):1450-1456
©Scholars Academic and Scientific Publishers (SAS Publishers)
(An International Publisher for Academic and Scientific Resources)
ISSN 2347-5374 (Online)
ISSN 2347-9493 (Print)
Is Heart of Darkness A Critique of Colonialism?
Halimah Mohamed Ali
School of Humanities, Universiti Sains, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author:
Halimah Mohamed Ali
Abstract: Joseph Conrad is a world renown author. We can relate Conrad and his work to colonialism and imperialism.
One of his works that has received many critical views is Heart of Darkness (HOD). It has survived time and has become
a classic of the English literature canon. The question that arises as we read this text is that “Is Conrad a critique of
colonialism or does he support it?” To answer the question this essay will use the postcolonial lens to read the work. One
of the theorists used to discuss Conrad‟s Heart of Darkness will be Edward Said and his famous work Orientalism. We
will come to the conclusion as to whether the author defends colonialism or is a voice against it.
Keywords: colonialism, orientalism, Conrad, critique, Africa
Introduction
Joseph Conrad is a prominent author. He has
produced many texts that deal with the Orient. He
describes foreign lands and its people well. He is a
colonial writer and wrote during the peak of
colonialism. Thus, we can relate Conrad and his work
to colonialism. One of his works that has received many
critical views is Heart of Darkness (HOD). It has
survived time and become a classic of the English
literature canon. The question that arises as we read this
text is that “Is Conrad a critique of colonialism or does
he support it?”
To answer the question posed above we will read
HOD using Edward Said‟s Orientalism[1] and a later
text, Culture and Imperialism[2].Orientalism pioneered
discussions on postcolonialism. It is the first theoretical
text on the subject. Said argues that the Orient is
partially a European contrivance. This paper will use
Said‟s theory to read the Africa that has been depicted
by Conrad vis-à-vis Heart of Darkness.
One interesting definition of the term orientalism
can be found on the internet. It states, “Orientalism is a
term used especially in art for the imitation or depiction
of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers,
designers and artists. In particular, Orientalist painting,
depicting more specifically "the Middle East and North
Africa”, was one of the many specialisms of 19th
century Academic art. Since the publication of Edward
Said‟s Orientalism, the term has arguably acquired a
negative connotation.” [3]. Since orientalism also
included Africa it is appropriate for this paper to use
Available Online: http://saspjournals.com/sjahss
Said‟s concept of orientalism to read a text that
concentrates on Africa.
What is Orientalism?
Said in Orientalism[1] argues that the Orient is
partially a European contrivance and has been a locale
of romance, exotic creatures, obsessive memories and
scenery and extraordinary experience since antiquity.
The term Oriental, according to Said, is canonical since
Chaucer, Mandeville, Shakespeare, Dryden, Pope and
Byron used it. “It designated Asia or the East,
geographically, morally, culturally” [1]. Discourses that
have been written on the Orient throughout history have
portrayed and manipulated the Other‟s being, culture
and country as cliches. They have come into being
through the encounter of two different cultures, the
West and the East, and have transpired into Orientalism.
However, we have to take into account that there has
never been a pure, or unconditional Orient as there has
never been a nonmaterial form of Orientalism, much
less something so innocent as an “idea of the Orient”.
What is characteristic of Orientalism is that it expresses
strength of the West and the weakness of the Orient as
seen by the West [1].
The Orientalist and Orientalism have been
classified into three different categories. In his first
definition Said states that the Orientalist conducts
Orientalism when he/she teaches, writes about and
researches the Orient. This includes anthropologists,
sociologists, historians and philologists. Thus, in this
way Orientalism “lives on academically through its
theses about the Orient and the Oriental” [1]. The
second definition that Said gives is that Orientalism is
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based on ontological and epistemological distinction
made between the East and the West. Poets, novelists,
philosophers, political theorists, economists and
imperial administrators carried this out. Their work
escalated “elaborate theories, epics, novels, social
descriptions and political account of the Orient, its
people, customs, “mind”, destiny and so on” [1]. Said‟s
third interpretation of Orientalism is that it was
institutionalized in the late 18th century in order to
make statements about the Orient, authorize views over
it, describe it, rule over it, settle over it and teach
Orientalism. This created a Western style domination,
authority, and restructuring of the Orient [1].
Orientalism has fed the idea of a superior European
identity to the world. European ideas of Oriental
backwardness also reiterate European superiority via
Orientalism [1]. Said maintains that Orientalism spread
and became fertile because it was never challenged
since the Oriental initially accepted the Europeans
without suspicion [1]. Said also argues that the 19th and
20th century Western view of the Orient is that either
the Orient is inferior to the West or in need of corrective
study by the West. Thus, Orientalism places the
Orientals in the classroom, criminal court, prison or the
illustrated manual and scrutinize, study, judge,
discipline and govern them [1].
The process that is Orientalism is didactic.
According to Said it is a discipline that represents
“institutionalized Western knowledge of the Orient”
and it exercises a “three-way force”: on the Orientalist,
who depicts the Orient as he sees it, on the Orient, that
is described from a Western view point because it is
different from the West, and on the Western
“consumer” of Orientalism who accepts the
Orientalist‟s view though he (the reader) is uninitiated
about the Orient and its truth. The truth about the Orient
is not based on a material (Orient) but on “learned
judgement” as to how Orientalists perceive and depict it
[1].
Said argues that Orientalism is based upon
externals by which the Orientalist (poet/scholar) makes
the Orient speak by describing the Orient and
interpreting its mysteries “for and to the West” [1]. The
Orientalist‟s discourse testifies that the Orientalist is
outside the Orient as an existential and moral fact [1].
The authenticity and the sense of Orientalism in these
discourses depend on the West rather than the Orient.
Orientalism is indebted to Western techniques of
representation that makes the Orient “visible”, “clear”
and “there” in the discourses written on it. These
representations rely on institutions, traditions,
conventions and agreed-upon codes of understanding
for their effects. They do not rely on a far off and
common Orient [1].
The growth of Orientalism
The growth of colonialism of space and
economies has been much discussed. Said argues that
imperialism and Orientalism grew concurrently from
1815-1914. This is the period where European
colonialism expanded from 35% to 85% and every
continent on earth was affected especially Asia and
Africa which were dominated by the British and French.
During this era there was immense advance in the
institutions and in the content of Orientalist discourse.
Orientalism strengthened colonialism and was
strengthened by it [1]. 19th and 20th century
Orientalism unrelentingly constructed the whole Orient
[1]. Said argues that the use of the terms Western and
Oriental has created a wider divide between the two and
emphasizes each party‟s cultural difference. Because
Orientalism originates from the West, Western power
over the Orient is taken for granted like scientific truth
[1].
Western Orientalism started with colonialism
and imperialism by Europeans of the Other. According
to Said from the beginning of the 19th century until the
end of World War II France and Britain dictated the
Orient and Orientalism [1].
Orientalism sustains the binary opposition of
the West and East. The cultural hegemony of the West
has given Orientalism the strength that it has today.
European culture is hegemonic and viewed as superior
to non-European people and cultures, because
Available Online: http://saspjournals.com/sjahss
The Orient within Orientalism
In this section I explain what the Orient is in
the realms of Orientalism via Said‟s research. The
Orient Other, though his/her culture has not been
created by the Western Orientalist scholar, has been
judged and put in a stereotypical mould for public
viewing and entertainment.
Nevertheless, Orientalism does not mean that
the East is an idea that was created by the West. Said
argues that like the West the Orient is an idea that has a
history and tradition of thought, imagery, vocabulary
that have given it reality and presence in and for the
West [1]. Thus, the Orient is not merely a creation or a
superficial European fantasy about the Orient, but a
created body of theory and practice in which, for many
generations, there has been a considerable material
investment. It is valuable as a sign of European-Atlantic
power over the Orient.
Therefore, the structure of Orientalism is more
than lies or myths, because these would simply
disappear. Orientalism‟s continued study has added
knowledge in the Western consciousness [1].
Oriental discourse put a face and a mould to
the Oriental character. Ideas about it influenced the idea
of the West and the Other. In many ways this rigidified
the notion of the superior West and the inferior Orient
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because the difference between them was highlighted
by Orientalist discourse [1]. Said refers to a lecture
given by Arthur James Balfour, a former British prime
minister, which indicates that Balfour takes for granted
British superiority and Egyptian inferiority. Balfour‟s
ideas are an echo of the Western psyche in its relation to
the East. Balfour indicates that the Western knowledge
of the Other‟s culture (Egypt); its origins, prime and
decline make the West superior to the East. This is due
to the fact that the object is vulnerable to scrutiny, and
to have knowledge of the object means to dominate it
and have authority over it [1]. It means that the West
denies freedom to the East.
Orientalism as a discourse presents to the West
an Orient that is fixed in time and place. Oriental
culture, politics and social history only comes into
being for the West in response to the West. Thus, the
West is the actor and the Orient is a passive reactor. The
West becomes the spectator, judge and jury of Oriental
behaviour [1].
However, Said argues, Balfour does not state if
Easterners appreciate “the good that is being done them
by colonial occupation” because Balfour does not allow
the Egyptian to speak [1]. The Egyptian is not given a
voice because Egyptian voices would be dissenting
voices, and Said argues that in the eyes of Balfour, any
Egyptian who spoke would be the “agitator” rather than
the “good native” [1]. This is parallel to Lord Cromer‟s
views who was England‟s representative in Egypt and
who thought that “Subject races did not have it in them
to know what was good for them” [1].
Narratives of power
This section introduces and discusses Said‟s
Culture and imperialism[2]. While Orientalism[4]
concentrated on the Middle-East, Said‟s 1993 project
does justice to other postcolonial worlds and discourses,
other than the Arab world. He criticizes Grand
narratives of the Enlightenment and modern writings as
well in his later work.
Said argues that an Orientalist writer must first
of all locate himself or herself vis-à-vis the Orient. This
will then influence his/her rendition of the Orient. The
tools that he/she employs: voice, structure, images,
themes and motifs will direct the writer‟s approach
towards his/her reader, give him/her authority to
represent and speak on the Orient‟s behalf and as well
as provide means to govern the Orient. All this does not
take place in the abstract because according to Said all
writers assume some Oriental precedent and previous
knowledge of the Orient that he/she refers to and relies
on. Thus, each work on the Orient is associated to other
works, audiences, institutions and the Orient which then
gives Orientalism its strength and authority [1].
Therefore, colonial fiction has not been produced in a
vacuum.
Ultimately Orientalism is a political vision of
reality that promotes the difference between the West
and the Other. It limited the exploration/rendition of
fictional discourse say of Flaubert, Nerval or Scott [1].
Westerners no matter how inferior to Orientals are still
seen as a head above the Orientals. The Other is not
seen “quite as human” [1] as the West. Said argues that
in the “electronic, postmodern world” stereotypes of the
Orient have been reinforced. Information about the
Orient on television, films and media resources has
been forced into standardized moulds. In relation to the
Orient “standardization and cultural stereotyping have
intensified the hold of the nineteenth-century academic
and imaginative demonology of the mysterious Orient”
[1]. Orientalist reality is antihuman and persistent.
Available Online: http://saspjournals.com/sjahss
This brings me to Said‟s argument that
knowledge of the Orient creates the Orient, the Oriental
and the Oriental‟s world [1]. What the Oriental knows
of his world is from the knowledge manipulated by the
West of the Orient [1].
In Culture and imperialism[2], Said argues that
narratives are an important agenda of colonialism
because for the West narratives play an important part
in their battle over foreign lands. Yet according to Said
stories are not merely renditions of strange regions of
the world by explorers and novelists. There is a dual
function of narratives because they are a “method that
colonized people use to assert their own identity and the
existence of their own history” [2].
Said uses
metaphors to make a connection between nations and
narratives. According to him, Grand narratives of
emancipation and Enlightenment mobilized the
colonized people to pursue and gain their independence
[2].
Ideals like equality and freedom have been
around since the existence of the Grand narratives.
However, Said found very few British or French artists
opposed the ideas of subject or inferior races that were
used by the colonial powers “as matter of course in
ruling India and Algeria” [2]. One of the examples of
colonial narratives that Said gives is Conrad‟s work. He
says that Conrad‟s discourse is a precursor of later
fictions and discourses. These works, influenced by
Conrad, be they novels by individuals like V.S. Naipaul
and Graham Greene or Robert Stone, theories of
imperialism, travel writings or films, their specialty are
to “deliver the non-European world either for analysis
and judgement or for satisfying the exotic tastes of
European and North American audiences” [2].
Conrad is an important fixture in the
discussions on imperialism. Said argues that even today
the Western world has not been able to move away
from the issues that Conrad presented in his fiction: the
evils of imperialism and the argument that the
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Westerners has a right to rule the Other or simply
“make the world safe for democracy” [2]. Said further
argues that, “At least Conrad had the courage to see that
no such schemes ever succeeded…” [2].
Said implies that the novel as a genre is a
product of „bourgeois society‟. He argues that the novel
and imperialism are inseparable, and so it is impossible
to discuss one without the other [2]. He uses Conrad‟s
Nostromo as an example. According to him “Conrad
allows the reader to see that imperialism is a system”
which offers “a profoundly unforgiving” view. Conrad
is a pioneer who noticed what was going on and was
brave enough to give voice to his self-doubt. He
articulates the criticisms that other colonial discourses
of his time did not dare speak about or about which they
were ignorant. Conrad saw the Other with compassion
and he sensed the evils of colonialism, and portrayed
both through his novels. However, he managed
simultaneously to reiterate and criticize colonial
discourse.
Conrad may not have managed to shatter the
ephemeral image of the superiority of empire, but he
certainly did plant the seeds of doubt about other
colonial discourses. His Heart of Darkness (HOD) may
not have been such a harsh critique of colonialism but it
cannot be denied it is a critique of colonial discourse.
Said‟s theories offer a great deal towards
structuring the theoretical framework for the
methodology applied to read and criticize HOD. He
explains Western Orientalism, his criticism of the
colonial Western agendas are important in my
discussions. His 1993 project discusses the regurgitation
of the Western agendas by postcolonial writers. Both
works defend the sanctity and freedom of people, race,
culture and religion as well as equality.
Heart of Darkness: An Analysis
Heart of Darkness was published as a three
part serial in 1899 in Blackwood‟s Magazine. Later in
1903 it was printed and circulated in book form. The
story begins in England on a yawl called the Nellie
which is docked at the Thames in London. The story is
within a story which is called a frame narrative. Charles
Marlow the narrator of most of the book tells his fellow
passengers that are on board of the Nellie of his
adventure in the heart of Africa1 and the story of a man
named Kurtz whom he tried to safe from the heart of
darkness. We see Africa or as it is called the heart of
darkness vis-à-vis Marlow‟s gaze and experience.
1
Which
is not actually mentioned or named in the fiction, but
we can draw conclusions that it is the Congo that Conrad is
talking about because he was once stationed in that country.
Available Online: http://saspjournals.com/sjahss
Heart of Darkness deals with the issue of
colonialism. We are made to think of colonialism
seriously through this passage:
The conquest of the earth, which mostly
means the taking it away from those who have
different complexion or slightly flatter noses
than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you
look into it too much. What redeems it is the
idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a
sentimental pretence but an idea; and an
unselfish belief in the idea – something you
can set up, and bow down before, and offer a
sacrifice to… [5].
What Conrad tries to tells us is that
colonialism occurred because of the difference that was
established to be between the colonizer and the
colonized subjects; the difference in skin colour and
facial structure. It was made to come into being by
something that is not concrete, an “idea” alone. The
idea than sprouted a belief system that colonizers used
to legalize colonialism. The idea was made concrete by
people like Charles Darwin who wrote The Origins of
Species and John Stuart Mill‟s Minute on Indian
Education. Both books were published in the 19the
century,at the peak of colonialism. These books are
orientalist discourses that legitimized the idea behind
colonialism.
However, Conrad unlike his predecessors
gives us a different picture of colonialism. The idea that
Conrad puts in the minds of his readers is that
colonialism is not attractive, if one thinks about it in
depth. The idea of how the heart of darkness changes
Westerners is brought up by Conrad. It has a „bad‟
influence on them. This is brought forward by Conrad
via Marlow‟s story of the Dane who was killed fighting
over two black hens. He was stabbed by the son of the
chief of the village from whom he had bought the hens.
He was killed while he was beating the chief with a
stick. Marlow says that the Dane was known to be
“…the gentlest, quietest creature that ever walked on
two legs” [5]. The mysterious heart of darkness turns
the mildest human beings into aggressive souls. It is the
duties of this man that Marlow takes over.
Conrad does not paint a beautiful picture of the
heart of darkness for his audience. This is evident in the
description of the place that Marlow was going to “I
was going into the yellow [referring to the colour of the
location on the map] Dead in the centre. And the river
was there-fascinating – deadly – like a snake” [5]. The
locale is depicted to be dangerous by Conrad. When he
uses the simile “like a snake” it brings to mind that the
river is unsafe.
On this river that he observes on the map and
describes as deadly as a snake he sees the deficiency of
colonialism. Conrad via Marlow illustrates an incident
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on the river that has a very close connection to the idea
of colonialism. He states,
Once , I remember, we came upon a man-ofwar anchored off the coast. There wasn‟t even
a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It
appears the French had one of their wars going
on thereabouts. Her ensign drooped limp like a
rag; the muzzles of long six-inch guns stuck
out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy
swell swung her up lazily and let her down,
swaying her thin masts. In the empty
immensity of earth, sky and water, there she
was incomprehensible, firing into a
continent…There was a touch of insanity in
the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery
in the sight; and it was not dissipated by
somebody on board assuring me earnestly
there was a camp of natives – he called them
enemies! – hidden out of sight somewhere[5].
The
quotation
above
shows
the
meaninglessness of colonialism. The ship was firing
into emptiness to kill unseen enemies. This portrays the
futility of colonialism. Here Conrad criticizes the act of
colonialism and pointless wars that are carried out in
foreign lands. Marlow sees the firing of the cannon into
nothingness as a sort of craziness. This thought is not
erased by the explanation of one of his shipmates that
state there are natives that are seen as enemies by the
French. The idea that Conrad succeeds in putting into
the readers minds is that colonialism and wars against
the natives of colonized states are a sort of insanity.
The effect of Africa (the wilderness) on the
white man is also discussed earlier in this novel. It is a
precursor of what awaits Marlow in the heart of
darkness. Conrad tells us that Africa has an effect on the
white man. A Swedish ship captain talks of this to
Marlow. As their conversation sets off:
‟The other day I took up a man who hanged
himself on the road. He was a Swede, too.‟
„Hanged himself! Why in God‟s name?‟ I
cried. He kept on looking out watchfully.
„Who knows? The sun too much for him, or
the country perhaps.‟[5].
We are given the idea that the country is not
suitable for the white man. The example of the Swede
that commits suicide for no apparent reason suggests
this. The example of the Dane previously discussed and
theabove example builds the plot towards us meeting
Kurtz in the novel.
Conrad also portrays the dissipation and pointlessness
of colonialism that has occurred in the heart of
darkness. The text portrays waste and senseless things
that are being done for no apparent reason:
I came upon a boiler wallowing in the grass,
then found a path leading up the hill. It turned
Available Online: http://saspjournals.com/sjahss
aside for the boulders, and also for an
undersized railway-truck lying there on its
back with its wheels in the air. One was off.
The thing looked as dead as the carcass of
some animal. I came upon more pieces of
decaying machinery, a stack of rusty rails. To
the left a clump of trees made a shady spot,
where dark things seemed to stir feebly. I
blinked, the path was steep. A horn tooted to
the right, and I saw black people run. A heavy
and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of
smoke came out of the cliff and that was all.
No change appeared on the face of the rock.
They were building a railway. The cliff was
not in the way of anything; but this objectless
blasting was all the work going on[5].
The blasting of the hill that is not in the way of
the railway track as Marlow sees it is not productive.
The over turned railway truck represents the uselessness
of colonialism. The scene that has been painted for us
by the author depicts the futility of colonialism.
Conrad via Marlow brings three incidents
together and looks at the events with a critical gaze.
We, the readers, become part of this gaze. He criticizes
the absurdity and worthlessness of colonialism. We are
shown images of six black men that have “black rags
wound around their loins” [5] which are chained
together carrying “small baskets of earth on their heads”
[5]. They are malnourished. Marlow hears another blast
from the hill and thinks of the ship that was blasting
into nothingness.He thinks that it is illogical for these
thin undernourished men to be the enemies and he
concludes that the law that has been passed in the heart
of darkness is as mysterious as the sea. A white man
with a rifle is seen as eagerly guarding the “savages‟ as
Marlow describes the natives [5]. Though he is a
critique of colonialism Conrad, the white man, cannot
depart from the idea of seeing the natives as the Other.
As has been discussed by Said that the native is always
seen as inferior to the Occident. Therefore he labels the
natives as savage.
Conrad‟s criticism of colonialism reaches its
climax when we are introduced to Kurtz. The man that
is revered and envied as well as hated by some of his
fellow white men. He comes under our critical gaze as
Marlow‟s journey up river continues. Marlow hears of
him before he gets to meet the man. He listens to
fabulous stories about Kurtz and how he is doing good
in the heart of darkness and his capacity of sending
back to Europe the most ivory as compared to his
colleagues.
When Marlow reaches Kurtz‟s station he meets
with a Russian who is Kurtz‟s acquaintance. The man
asks Marlow to take Kurtz away [5]. From him we find
out that Kurtz has gone native. He and the tribe that he
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lives with raid the country for ivory[5].We are told that
Kurtz also tried to kill the Russian for the little ivory
that he had with him. The Russian gave him the ivory
and saved his life [5].
Marlow considers Kurtz to have gone mad as
he listens to the details told by the Russian. We are
informed that Marlow goes hunting for ivory hunt with
his tribe[5]. As Marlow listens to this he skims the area
with his binoculars and he sees knobs on stakes.
Another inspection makes him realize that they are
human heads. He is disgusted when he realizes this [5].
Marlow forms an opinion of Kurtz as he listens
to the Russian and the manager that has followed him to
rescue Kurtz, and his view of the heads. According to
Marlow, the heads showed that,
…he lacked restraint in the gratification of his
various lusts, that there was something wanting
in him – some small matter which, when the
pressing need arose, could not be found under
his magnificent eloquence. Whether he knew
of this deficiency himself I can‟t say. I think
the knowledge came to him at last – only at the
very last. But the wilderness had found him out
early, and had taken on him a terrible
vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it
had whispered to him things about himself that
he did not know, things of which he had no
conception till he took counsel with this great
solitude – and the whisper had proved
irresistibly fascinating. It echoed loudly within
because him he was hollow at the core …. [5].
The excerpt above juxtaposes Kurtz and the
wilderness. The wilderness is the other to the West.
Marlow implies that Kurtz has become degenerate
because the wilderness has taken over. However unlike
other Orientalist discourses of his time that mostly put
the blame on the Other for the failure of the white man,
Conrad states vis-à-vis Marlow that the wilderness
could take over Kurtz‟s life because he was “hollow at
the core” [5]. If Kurtz was a whole person he would not
be in the state that he was in when Marlow found him.
If he had self-restraint and had inner checks on his
personality he would not have gone native and headed
the tribe on ivory hunting raids and murdered across the
country. The heads on the stakes show that Kurtz was
indeed a debased person.
Kurtz does not live to return to his motherland.
Conrad does not allow this to happen. Kurtz is
degenerate, a mark on the white man‟s personality. He
is not allowed to live because this would mean that
Conrad advocated debauchery. His last moments are
described to us via Marlow. He states,
One evening coming in with a candle I was
startled to hear him say a little tremulously, „I
am lying here in the dark waiting for
Available Online: http://saspjournals.com/sjahss
death.‟…”Anything approaching the change
that came over his features I have never seen
before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I
wasn‟t touched. I was fascinated. It was as
though a veil had been rent. I saw on the ivory
face the expression of sombre pride, the
ruthless power, of craven terror – of an intense
and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again
in every detail of desire, temptation, and
surrender during that supreme moment of
complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at
some image, at some vision – he cried out
twice, a cry that was no more than a breath –
“The horror! The horror!‟ [5].
Kurtz‟s last moments are not beautiful. His life
that he has lived in the heart of darkness where he uses
his power without restraint flashes in front of his eyes at
the moment of death. His cry, “The horror! The horror!”
reveals that he views his past with dismay and
revulsion. At this moment of truth could he have been
apologizing for the degrading life that he has lead? If
we view Conrad‟s text as a critique of colonialismthen
we can say that Kurtz‟s last moments and death is an
apology for the pointlessness of colonialism.
Conclusion
Conrad is indeed a prominent author who was an
expert on the Orient and Africa. The many texts that he
has produced describe these foreign lands and its people
well. Because he wrote during the peak of colonialism
he can be labelled as a colonial writer as well as an
orientalist. Thus, HOD can be related to colonialism,
and the amount of research done on it shows that it has
many critical views.
Said‟s
Orientalism[1]
and
Culture
and
Imperialism[2]
pioneered
discussions
on
postcolonialism and is aptly used to answer the question
as to whether HOD is indeed a critique of colonialism.
The Orientalism that is pictured by Said is very ugly,
however Conrad‟s orientalist text does not follow
exactly the formula that has been shown to us by Said.
Conrad produces images of a futile colonialism, an act
that destroys its perpetrators. Kurtz is an example of
that. His death gives us evidence that Conrad does not
approve of colonialism nor does he advocate it. He sees
it as degrading and a waste of man power. Thus, it can
be concluded that HOD is a critique of colonialism
although it does not depict the act as ugly as has been
portrayed by Said.
Acknowledgement: This essay has been researched
and written using the Insentif Grant given by Universiti
Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
References
1. Said, Edward; Orientalism. London: Penguin
Books, 1978.
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Halimah Mohamed Ali.; Sch. J. Arts. Humanit. Soc. Sci., December 2015; 3(9A):1450-1456
2.
3.
4.
5.
Said, Edward; Culture and Imperialism.
London: Vintage Books, 1993.
Orientalism; Retrieved from
http://e
n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism
online
10/02/2012)
Loomba, Ania; Colonialism/Postcolonialism.
London; New York: Routledge, 1998.
Conrad, Joseph; Heart of Darkness and Other
Tales. Ann Arbor: Borders Classics, 2007.
Available Online: http://saspjournals.com/sjahss
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